Patients unable to control the natural flow of urine may conventionally be equipped with a catheter in turn connected by a drain tube to a urinary drainage bag. A typical commercial drainage bag is a flat, pouchlike container of flexible sheet plastic material. The connected drain tube is typically about four feet in length, for example sufficient to reach from the catheterized patient on a bed to a drainage bag located beneath the bed. Typically, the drainage bag incorporates a pair of support grommets along its upper edge for support by a cord or hooked wire from a convenient part of the bed frame.
When the patient is moved to a wheelchair, the drainage bag has often been suspended on the side of the wheelchair. However, this may result in entanglement of the bag or drain tube with the adjacent chair wheel, or furniture past which the chair moves, with a consequent possibility of rupturing or disconnecting of the bag or tube and consequent spillage of the contents thereof. Further, contact with the wheel tends to transfer dirt and the like from the floor to the surface of the bag and tube, while entanglement with the wheel raises the possibility of constriction of the tube sufficient to cause backup to urine to the bladder, thereby increasing the risk of urinary infection in the patient.
In an attempt to avoid constriction of the drain tube by a chair wheel, U.S. Pat. No. 3 896 809 (Samuel) discloses suspending the urinary drainage bag by the usual cord or string but from a hook at the rear face of the back of the wheelchair, such that the bag lies to the rear of and well below the seat of the wheelchair. While the drainage bag is thus spaced in between the main wheels of the chair, the patented system raises some additional problems.
More particularly, positioning of the drainage bag below and to the rear of the seat tends to place it in the way of the feet and lower legs of an attendant pushing the wheelchair, making it easy to accidentally kick and thereby contaminate the drainage bag with dirt from the floor, or even rupture the drainage bag with consequent risk of leakage. Also, as the patent shows, the drainage bag conventionally is provided with a short outlet tube mounted low in the bag, by which the drainage bag can be emptied. With the bag mounted so low on the wheelchair and in such close proximity to the floor and to the shoes of an attendant, there appears to be substantial risk of dirt or other contaminants settling on this outlet tube and thereby enhancing the possibility of infiltration of the drainage and drain tube by undesirable bacterial agents.
Further, the patented system avoids placing the drain tube near the chair wheels by extending the drain tube from the rear mounted bag along a path beneath the chair seat and thus up and over the front of the chair seat to the catheterized patient. As a practical matter, transfer of the patient from wheelchair to bed or vice versa will normally be done by disconnecting and then reconnecting the patient to the drainage bag, normally at the juncture between the catheter and drainage tube, to avoid having to move the drainage bag and its support cord forwardly, or rearwardly, beneath the wheelchair seat. Not only is such transfer cumbersome at best, it is virtually impossible in modern transversely collapsible wheelchairs with cross or X-bracing or other structural elements beneath the wheelchair seat as may block passage of the drainage bag therebeneath. Even without obstructions beneath the wheelchair seat, the added weight of an other than entirely empty bag would tend to discourage an attentant from attempting to pass the bag and drain tube beneath the wheelchair seat. Disconnection of the patient from the bag avoids this problem but creates another, namely increasing the risk of urinary infection in the patient due to disconnection and reconnection of the drain tube. The risk of infection is additionally enhanced by the need to thread the drain tube through the cross bracing or other under seat structure of the wheelchair, once the bag has been installed at the rear of the seat, in order to reconnect same to the patient.
The prior art arrangements above-discussed, in addition, may tend to cause embarrassment of some patients by positioning the drainage bag itself, without any covering, in a highly visible position on the wheelchair.
Accordingly, the objects of this invention include provision of:
1. A urinary drainage bag support securable to patient support furniture, such as beds and chairs.
2. A support, as aforesaid, particularly usable in combination with wheelchairs for supporting a urinary drainage bag well out of the way of and safe from contact from the wheels of the chair and the feet of an attendant pushing the chair.
3. A support, as aforesaid, mountable beneath the front edge of the seat of a wheelchair for supporting a urinary drainage bag beneath and near the catheter of a catheterized patient, and ahead of the usual cross bracing on transversely collapsible wheelchairs.
4. A support, as aforesaid, pivotally adjustable substantially horizontally for swinging the supported urinary drainage bag from a use position extending transversely across the front of the wheelchair behind the legs of the patient, to a stowed position extending longitudinally of the chair and in non-interferring relation with collapsible cross bracing below the level of the chair seat.
5. A support, as aforesaid, including a portion substantially completely enclosing the urinary drainage bag to protect same from contamination by environmental dirt or the like and from being ripped or cut by contact with parts of the chair or items in the path thereof, which supports the drainage bag securely without recourse to pendent support of the bag by conventional cords, hooks or the like.
6. A support, as aforesaid, by which the catheterized patient, drainage tube and bag may be installed in, or removed from, the wheelchair as a unit and without need for disconnection as between the catheterized patient, drain tube and bag, and without need for threading the bag and/or tube through underseat bracing or the like of the wheelchair, for easier and quicker installation or removal of the patient from the chair, while minimizing risk of urinary infection in the course of transferring the patient into or out of his wheelchair, and which permits the patient himself to readily install, use, and remove the drainage bag and drain tube with respect to the wheelchair.
7. A support, as aforesaid, which encloses the drainage bag and locates the drainage bag and drain tube beneath the front part of the wheelchair seat and immediately behind the patient's legs, so as to make as inconspicuous as possible the presence of the bag and tube and thereby reduce to a minimum any embarrassment of the patient as to the appearance to others of the urinary drainage equipment.
8. A support, as aforesaid, readily adaptable to secure mounting on chair side frame members of differing cross sectional shape.
Other objects and purposes of this invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.